Ah, form validation. It sucks, it’s not fun to apply, and even the most advanced and time-consuming methods still have their way of allowing pointless bot spam to flood your inbox.
But what about real users or actual human beings who want to use your form? How can you provide a straightforward form validation method without the headache of cranking out tons of code and server-side validation techniques?
Let’s look at the sheer simplicity and practical use of HTML 5 client-side form validation.
What Is HTML 5 Client-Side Form Validation & How Does It Work?
HTML 5 form validation works with your browsers’ ability to recognize a form field you specify as required; the browser then uses built-in functionality to enforce the field.
As with any client-side form validation, you will still get spam submissions; however, for the sake of practical use and genuine users, you can ensure all necessary form fields are indeed filled out with HTML 5 form validation.
How To Make A Form Field Required Using HTML 5
To enforce a specific form field to be required, we will need to look at some simple form code. Let’s first look at a standard form input field:
<input placeholder="Full Name" type="text" name="name">Now, let’s make this form field required by making a small addition within the input tag:
<input placeholder="Full Name" type="text" name="name" required>That’s it. By simply adding “required” within the input tag, this tells the browser that the field must be populated before being submitted.
If a user attempts to submit the form without filling in all of the required fields, the browser will display either a highlighted border or tooltip on the required field(s) depending on the specific browser being used.